


The 12:00 From Alexandria To Cairo

by HerbertBest



Category: Indiana Jones Series
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, Family, Gen, Humor, Kidnapping, Mystery, Rescue, Threatening Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 03:24:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12879162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: Indiana's plans for a nice, peaceful lecture series is interrupted by the kidnapping of his father and the theft of a large ruby.  He and Marion have a lot of ground to cover if they're going to save Henry's life and keep a priceless artifact from being sold off by nefarious men for profit.





	The 12:00 From Alexandria To Cairo

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LemuelCork](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LemuelCork/gifts).



> This fic ignores any and all continuity from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I've got nothing against it, but I wanted Henry to be a living presence in the story, so ignoring it was something of a necessity!
> 
> I hope you love the story, LemuelCork! I tried to make it as action-packed as you asked for!

It happened during his lecture on iconography in ancient Egypt. He was partially relieved; it had been going poorly. Even Marion had been drifting off to sleep in the front row (it was only fair; he had fallen asleep during her major presentation about religion in Mesopotamia). So the entry of six hooded gunmen, who grabbed a priceless ruby from the podium and kidnapped his father for ransom before Indiana could throw a single lousy punch sort of livened up the evening. 

There was no time to waste; he dodged the police demanding interviews at the back door as Marion fished the keys to his jeep out of the pocket. They both knew that there would be clues waiting for them at the Osiris Hotel. 

Indiana’s blood was pumping, but his features stayed fixed in a calm mask. They would get his dad back. The ruby was an afterthought.

 

 

*** 

 

 

Naturally their room had been ransacked. “They ate what was left from our room service tray,” Marion noticed. 

“These are some desperate guys,” Indiana noticed. Digging under the rucked-up bedspread, he managed to find a note – a woman’s number and name, balled up. “Huh. Did Dad say he was planning on meeting up with someone?” Indiana had a way of tuning out his father’s talk about women, still reacting to the notion of his father being with another woman the way a child might grow upset and jealous about their parent’s divorce.

“Just a girl he met at the train station. He said something about meeting her for a drink after the lecture last night. Told me we shouldn't wait up.” Marion folded up the napkin and stuffed it into her pocket. “You were halfway through the lecture when they cut in. Do you think she could be waiting for him there? If we can find her we'll find out what she knows.”

“It’s past midnight,” he pointed out.

“The clock of love knows no hour,” she said. He frowned at her. “You need to read more, darling."

"Yeah, I read enough, thanks.

"Well, I know I don’t need to explain the birds and the bees to you, Indy...”

“Of course not. But he’s my father!”

“Your father has a life too,” she pointed out. She grabbed the room’s phone and began to dial.

“Boy, do I wish I didn’t know that,” he muttered.

 

 

*** 

 

The restaurant was understated, and the young blonde roughly half his father’s age nervous and appalled to see her quarry’s son and daughter-in-law show up.

She didn’t know why his father had been kidnapped, but he had been seen in the company of a jewelry dealer from Switzerland. One who had a big suite of emeralds and diamonds bright enough to draw anyone’s attention, especially this innocent twenty-year-old working as an assistant to an archeologist. Indiana discounted her information. Gemology wasn’t his father’s strong suit – the girl confirmed Indiana’s thoughts, said their conversation was brief.

“But I did hear him saying that they had a statue they were looking to sell. Your Pop said he’d do them a solid and help out,” the girl nervously lit a cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke toward Marion and Indy’s wincing faces. 

“Auction…Marion, wasn’t there a guy working for Harrods at opening night?” Indy asked.

“And he said he had some statuary he wanted your father to look at. He rejected the offer. The house is in Northern Egypt…”

“Isn’t there a train headed to Alexandria soon?”

“At twelve midnight,” she said.

“Time to start packing,” he noted, and passed the young girl money enough to get herself back to her hotel. 

 

 

*** 

 

They barely had time to pack before arriving to see the train ready to steam off. By some miracle they made it, and when the porter showed Indiana to his berth all he wanted to do was comfortably collapse into it. Marion was already there when he tossed his dusty hat on the floor. Her arms wrapped comfortably around him.

Unfortunately he’d needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, which was when, stumbling against the lurching of the train, two hunched figures in black robes tried to jump Indiana in the hallway. There were fisticuffs. Indiana found himself hammering one back into a wall, where he knocked himself out cold – then a second grabbed him up in a chokehold.

It was Marion who knocked that thug out cold with a vase to the back of the head. 

She dusted off her hands against the legs of her hostess pajamas. “I’m glad this is a well-decorated train,” Indy muttered, as she helped him to his feet. Tending to the tiny cut on his lip, she pressed a handkerchief to his flesh, then kicked one of the semi-conscious thugs.

“You’re going to be reported either way,” she said, “but I think talking might be a good idea. You should start. Now.”

 

 

*** 

 

The guys weren’t too bad – well, once you got to know them. They managed to worm information out of one of them. It seemed they’d been hired by that same jeweler who’d waylaid Henry on the train in to Cairo. He’d been interested in the ruby, but Henry’s knowledge even more. 

The train stopped as scheduled in Alexandria, and the thieves were then hauled off to jail. Indiana took the information they'd gathered to an antiquities professor he’d gone to school with, and the man gave him a ride to the auction house and an amulet made out of amber-colored stone with carefully-chiseled cuneiform writing decorating its front. Indiana slipped it into his front shirt pocket.

“For luck,” said the curator. “And I expect it to be returned unshattered.”

“I expected to actually finish my lecture series,” Indy said. “I’ve learned not to expect things."

The words hadn’t been out of his mouth for two minutes when the pedicab crashed into a black Sedan that had cut through a footpath to maim him.

“You see what I mean?” Indiana said, a second before he lost consciousness, his head pressed to Marion’s lap.

 

 

*** 

 

He woke an hour later, tied to a rattan chair on a large veranda. A thin, well-wrinkled, balding man in a tuxedo with bright eyes watched him curiously, and Marion was lying bound and gagged at the man’s feet.

“Doctor Jones. I see you’re awake.”

There was something familiar about his manner, as he rose to taunt the two of them, but Indiana didn’t think about it too hard. Maybe he’d seen too many villains in his time – or maybe the name ‘Smith’ just wasn’t that original a moniker to him anymore. Instead, he worked to loosen the bonds until they began to give, subtly rubbing the rope against the rattan slat behind him. 

The villain held out the ruby between his fingertips, and it glinted in the sunlight. “This is going to fetch a pretty penny on the black market. My superiors will adore it…their quest for world domination will be that much easier.”

“Not while I’m breathing, pal.” He locked eyes with Marion, whose expression remained calm. He could see her working her ankles together, trying to loosen the bonds strapping down her legs. 

“You won’t be for much longer. Much like your father. He’s on the other side of the country, only hours from roasting to death in the desert heat. I’m much fonder of you. Your death will be quick!”

One inch from Indiana’s body the man pitched forward with an ‘oof!’ Indiana knew exactly what had happened once Marion stood up behind the villain, ripping off the ropes that held her, tossing him her pocket knife, which he caught by the skin of his teeth.

Then Indiana wrenched his own wrists free of the bonds. In the scramble, the ruby had gotten free, but the crook had managed to grab it and draw his knife at the same moment Indiana drew his own gun, still strapped securely to his ankle (the man must’ve been in a ridiculous hurry to have missed it). They stood inches away in a fateful, frightening stand-off, until Indiana reached down the neck of his shirt and pulled forth the amulet. 

“I’ll swap,” he said, finger on the trigger of his pistol. “This amulet is the most powerful artifact on the planet. The ruby is nothing compared to it. Give me the ruby and I’ll give you this amulet, and with it you’ll rule the world.”

A pause. Then a long, dusty laugh. “You’re more foolish than I thought, Doctor Jones,” he said, and tossed the ruby in Indiana’s direction.

The trade was a simple one, but it was probably going to involve a long, tough conversation with his curator friend at some awkward cocktail party. Marion actualized his thoughts, as always. “The Cairo Museum is going to have your head,” she muttered, but she kept her own chin up, her look defiant.

“I’d rather die there than here,” Indiana said. Now that they were free they’d paused to gather themselves on the villian’s lawn. “And we both know that amulet’s a dime a dozen on the market. Okay, let’s think about this. He said my dad’s on the other side of the country. If he’s trying to kill him by roasting him to death, he’s probably in the west, just to get the maximum amount of light allowed.”

“What’s the quickest way to get to the border?”

“By air, but I don’t know how…”

Their eyes landed upon the barren field about them. There was a prop plane a few feet away, the ostentatious property of their former captor.

“Do you remember how to navigate?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she said. “Do you know how to fly?”

“No,” he admitted. “But there’s a first time for everything.”

 

 

*** 

 

They were forty miles outside of Cairo when Indiana realized the ruby had slid down the front of his shirt and was now, like his breakfast, hovering nervously in the middle of his stomach. He cursed under his breath and threw a look over his shoulder at Marion, who was sitting in the passenger seat of the duel engine Flyte, her eyes glued to the map. He’d been wise to let her be the navigator this trip; somehow he didn’t trust his own instincts this time – he was too preoccupied with getting the plane landed and his father rescued before it was too late.

Indiana was almost used to worrying about his dad at this point. It had been an occupation of his as a child, after all.

“We’re forty feet from an airstrip,” Marion said. “Keep east! Careful with the headwinds.”

“I’ve got it! Keep your eyes on the map, I’ll bring her in for a landing!” Their captor had kept his map under the visor of the plane - clear evidence that it was being used for quick pleasure trips and had never taken the sort of pounding the two of them were doling out - and Marion had been careful in reading it and tracking their path.

Indy wasn’t looking forward to telling her they’d have to improvise their way through this. Marion was wonderful, was tough, was capable – and she didn’t tolerate his bullshit, which was why he loved her but always why he respected her and tried to avoid major errors. 

“GO NORTH” she yelled, and he jerked the throttle. 

It was going to take them a hell of a long time to get there, but they would get there if it killed him.

 

 

*** 

 

It didn’t kill him. Bruised him, certainly – and there was a nasty cut on his thigh from the crash landing – but they were in one piece when they landed. 

He scratched his head, felt another cut opening up – then he checked on Marion, who was alive but dazed in her own seat. 

They walked toward the sun. It was nightmarishly hot by the time they saw a lone figure staked out in the light, looking less overheated than annoyed.

Indiana immediately went about breaking the bonds holding his father to the sand. Henry was stark naked, but Indiana could care less at the moment.

“There you are, Junior!” Henry said brightly. “I knew you were clever enough to follow the clues.”

“Thanks, dad,” he muttered. “Save your strength.” Marion poured water into Henry’s parched mouth while Indiana’s fingers worked under the sheep shank and started to violently work it loose. His father helped – squirming slightly, trying to help him get loose. Once he was, Indy offered his father his own hat, which he propped modestly before him.

“Miss Ravenwood,” he said, tipping his hat. 

“Actually,” she said, flashing the thin golden band she’d been proudly wearing for months. “Missus Jones, now.”

“You didn’t invite me to the wedding, Junior?”

“It was spurr of the moment, Dad,” Indiana said. “C’mon – we’ve got a plane to fix.”

Henry sighed and shook his head. “The boy’s almost too practical,” he declared, but walked back to the sight of the crash with Marion, hoping to help.

 

 

*** 

 

Somehow - with some elbow grease and some creativity - they got back to Cairo in one piece. By that time their captor had discovered that the amulet was a worthless token, and by that time Indiana had returned the ruby to its rightful position at the museum.

Just before heading onstage to tell a much more lively than before story about his latest adventure, he learned that there was a mysterious explosion at the house of their kidnapper. There were no survivors – but the amulet had remained intact, where it had ended up back in Indiana’s friend’s grip. Marion helped with his bow tie and his father listened to the story.

“Well, I guess that amulet’s luckier than I thought,” he told his dad. Marion rolled her eyes.

“Nonsense! It’s the family’s luck running through your veins!” Henry said.

“If that’s true,” Indiana said flatly, “than my presentation will be a hit.” 

“Some miracles aren’t evergreen, Junior,” his father said.

“You’ll be fine,” Marion said, and pecked him on the cheek for good luck.

Indiana had a feeling that the truth would lie somewhere in between those two points, as he stepped through the curtain and onto the stage, into an auditorium of clapping students. 

It was slightly less vexing than staring down a room filled with snakes, but not by much.


End file.
